By Jason Thompson

photo by steed media services

As it becomes increasingly difficult for parents of low-income families to provide their children with the educational tools for prosperity and success, the nonprofit organization Computers For Youth continues to offer help by distributing donated PCs to middle school students. As technology manager of the organization's Atlanta office, Richard Hicks uses his skills and resources to paint the brightest picture possible for Atlanta's youth.

“We want to be able to serve all of the families and make sure that they're properly supported and they have the resources that they need in the upcoming year,” he says. “In this technology age, that interaction between the parents and children is vital for them as they go into their latter years of college and into their careers. This is a perfect time to start, while they're in middle school, so then they get that boost and they're ready to take it forth in that next aspect of life.”

Hicks is responsible for refurbishing the computers and ensuring that they're properly programmed with the appropriate resources. The computers that come with Internet software aredesigned to accommodate learning at home. "We have an aggressive number count that we want to achieve, which is 600 for the year,” he says. “We want to be able to accommodate that because next year we want to be able to serve more families and grow from there.”